7 Best SD Cards For Phones in 2019

While there was a time when Android manufacturers like Samsung were shying away from microSD card slots on their phones, it’s safe to say that expandable storage is a feature that’s here to stay. Keeping this in mind, there are plenty of users out there who are looking to expand the onboard storage on their device with an SD or microSD card.

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If you’ve tried looking for SD cards online, you will know that it’s no easy job. This is particularly the case because there are simply so many options to choose from. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to talk about some of the best SD cards that are available for phones today. You will the usual names like SanDisk and Samsung here, but we’ve made sure to include other names too. So let’s have a closer look.

7 Best SD Cards For Phones in 2019

Lexar is a well known company as far as microSD cards are concerned. This is a high-speed microSDXC unit, which means you get high speed transfer rates, which can be extremely helpful for larger files. The idea here is to allow you to transfer large files to and from your smartphone to another source. The UHS technology allows this microSD card to offer transfer rates of up to 95MB/s, making this an extremely capable offering. It can be hard to really understand what 64GB of onboard storage can give you.

So for reference, Lexar mentions that this card can save 36 hours of HD video or 67,600 photos or 58,100 songs, which is pretty much everything that a person could need a microSD card. But if you’re looking to store larger files, it makes sense to invest in bigger microSD cards.

The best part about this product is that it also comes included with an SD card adapter, allowing you to transfer files to and from compatible computers. This microSDXC card is compatible with a wide range of smartphones and tablets, so you should find no issues with performance regardless of the device you use. If you’ve got plenty of 4K videos on your phone, this SD card should help you backup your content in no time.

SanDisk as a company needs no introduction, especially when we talk about microSD cards. This offering, aptly named the SanDisk Ultra brings 200GB of storage, effectively turning your phone into a computer of sorts. This card is particularly useful if you’re looking to shoot high resolution 4K video from your new smartphone. As you would know, 1080p or 4K videos can eat up into the internal storage pretty quickly, which is why an SD card like this one makes a great deal of sense for modern day smartphone users.

Since this is a class 10 microSDXC card, you get high speed transfer rates by default. SanDisk claims that it can transfer up to 1000 photos in under a minute. This figure would differ significantly based on the kind of photos you’ve taken. But with transfer speeds of up to 100 MB/s, there really won’t be much to complain about with the SanDisk Ultra. Managing the microSD card is pretty easy thanks to the SanDisk Memory Zone app for smartphones and tablets. Using a high speed microSD card like this one, customers no longer have to worry about shooting native 4K videos from their smartphones or tablets.

Samsung’s EVO lineup of microSD cards are massively popular in the marketplace for their versatility as well as transfer speeds. Samsung also bundles some of these with its Android smartphones, although the practice has disappeared over the past few years. This is a 64GB offering ideally suited for smartphones and tablets. Samsung claims this offers transfer speeds of up to 100 MB/s while reading and 60 MB/s while writing new files. This is pretty decent and on par with most microSDXC cards available in the market. The company mentions that this card can be used to shoot high resolution videos, save movies, music or large documents. Samsung also offers the microSD card in 128 and 256GB variants which can complement modern day smartphones well.

As you would expect, Samsung also offers an adapter with this product, helping you to transfer files from a laptop or desktop in an instant. This offering also comes with U3 compatibility which makes it great for high-speed file transfer. To top it off, Samsung also offers a limited 10 year warranty with this product, ridding you of any concerns regarding the quality of this product.

This is a little known company for many, but this is definitely one of the better microSD cards we’ve seen in the market so far. This microSD card features UHS-1 specifications that enable snappy transfer speeds. The company recommends using this on a USB 3.0 host or a compatible device for optimum performance. The company is selling this in a limited edition color, although it makes no difference to the transfer speeds. Another key highlight of this product is that it’s immune to water, shock, temperature changes as well as x-rays, making this a truly all weather SD card for your phone or tablet.

As is the norm, the manufacturer also supplies a SD card adapter which enables compatibility with legacy devices as well as a wide range of notebooks. This feature also makes it compatible with some Bluetooth speakers that offer SD card support, effectively turning your SD card into a music player. This card can store 850 minutes of videos, 16,000 songs and 24,000 photos, which is pretty remarkable. As far as high speed microSD cards go, this is one of the best you can get today.

The second Lexar microSDXC card on our list comes with 64GB of storage, and as you’ve probably guessed from the name, this is a truly high-end offering. Thanks to UHS-II technology (U3), this SD card can offer transfer speeds of up to 150 MB/s on compatible devices. This aspect alone gives it a significant advantage over the competition. Barring this, there are no other distinguishing features on this offering, although fast file transfer is pretty much the only requirement with portable storage devices. Despite supporting the newer standard, this microSD card is also backwards compatible with UHS-I devices.

Given the blazing fast data transfer speeds this card offers, it comes highly recommended for 4K or 1080p videos which can take a lot of space on your internal storage. While this is the 64GB offering, the company also offers this storage card in 128 and 256GB variants, which are better suited for professional videographers. Lexar offers a lifetime limited warranty coverage for this microSDXC card.

This is an upgraded version of the Samsung EVO microSDXC card that we spoke about earlier, and is meant for those with large phone storage requirements. This card offers read/write speeds at 100 Mb/s and 90 MB/s respectively. The company mentions that this card is ideally suited for 4K UHD video recording, high res photos, gaming, and music, which is pretty much everything that a person can possibly do with their smartphone. Since this is a Samsung products, the company recommends this card for its own flagships like the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 9, and so on.

In terms of protections, this card is water proof, shock proof, temperature proof, x ray proof, and is even resistant to magnets. Samsung is kind enough to offer a full size adapter with this product, allowing you to plug it in directly to laptops or even cameras. This microSDXC card is supported by a 10-year limited warranty from Samsung. In addition to the devices that we’ve talked about above, this microSD card can also be used with a handful of drones and other media devices. Keeping this in mind, this card can be used pretty much like an external hard drive. The high-speed transfer rates make it all the better. Be sure to check out this product on Amazon.

This microSD card deserves the name Extreme, thanks largely to its insane data transfer speeds. The SanDisk Extreme can offer read speeds of up to 160MB/s and write speeds of 90 MB/s which can be beneficial for high resolution 4K video shooting. Since this is a 128GB offering, you don’t have to worry about running out of storage, even if you’re storing your entire photo library and constantly shooting 1080p or 4K videos on your device. Fortunately, if 128GB is not quite enough for your smartphone, SanDisk Extreme is also available in a 1TB variant, which should satisfy all your portable data needs.

The company recommends users to download the SanDisk Memory Zone app which can help you keep an eye on your card while also offering file management features. This app is currently available for Android on the Google Play Store. SanDisk offers a lifetime warranty with this product, which is to say that this product will never give up on you. This is also because the SanDisk Extreme is temperature proof, water proof, shock proof and x-ray proof.

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